Cribs and Johnny Marr play Reading And Leeds Festivals warm-up

The Cribs played a warm-up show for their forthcoming Reading And Leeds Festivals appearances last night (August 18), for which The Smiths‘ former guitarist Johnny Marr played with the band for the entire set.

The gig, held at the King’s College Students’ Union venue, saw the four-piece debut two new songs destined for their next album, which the band told NME.COM they plan to record in early 2009.

Marr first began jamming with the band in January, then made sporadic live appearances with them on the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour before joining the group to pen new material.

“Hello London, we’re The Cribs from Wakefield and Manchester,” frontman Ryan Jarman said after walking on stage at 9:30pm (BST), referring to the hometowns of both the Jarman brothers and Marr.

The band went on to play a 16-song set that included two songs written since Marr joined the set-up.

The first new song of the night, ‘Victims Of Mass Production’, featured duelling guitars from Ryan Jarman and Marr, ending on tender guitar interplay as the pace of the song closed at the death.

Another, which Ryan declared was unfinished, featured a slower overall pace and an anthemic repeated chorus sung by bassist/singer Gary Jarman.

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“We just played a festival in Budapest – we played before a band who had a man dressed as a giant cock,” Ryan said midway through the set, lightening the mood. “The crowd went mental for them, so I’m not sure if we had a good gig or not.”

Ryan then dedicated ‘I’ve Tried Everything’ to the band’s late pet dog, Ollie, asking the crowd to shout his canine chum’s name repeatedly in tribute. Drummer Ross Jarman‘s bass drum featured a skin with a picture of their dog adorned on it.

“It’s weird that you can go for 26 years not knowing you had another Jarman brother living 40 miles down the road,” Ryan Jarman said near the end of the set, referring to Marr, prompting crowd chants of “Johnny! Johnny!”.

After a customary stage-dive from the singer/guitarist the band ended their set with ‘I’m A Realist’.

The Cribs, complete with Johnny Marr, are next set to take the stage for headline slots on the NME/Radio 1 Stage at the Reading Festival on Sunday (August 24) and at Leeds on Friday (August 22).